Makari Vickers

#10 · DB · Colorado6′1″ · 190 lb · Tallahassee, FL · Robert F. Munroe Day School

Last gameW 27–24vs Kansas State · Oct 31
Nextat Arizona StateSat Nov 7 · 7:30 pm ET
10 tackles in 5 games; their best was 7 vs Kansas State.
Game 1: at Georgia Tech, win 14-13, 1 tackle1WGT@Game 2: against Weber State, win 52-21, 0 tackles, FCS opponent0WWEBFCSGame 3: at Northwestern, loss 7-41, no tackles in this gameLNU@Game 4: at Baylor, loss 13-23, 1 tackle1LBAY@Game 5: against Texas Tech, loss 7-29, no tackles in this gameLTTUGame 6: against Utah, loss 24-27, no tackles in this gameLUTAHGame 7: at Oklahoma State, loss 24-57, 1 tackle1LOKST@Game 8: against Kansas State, win 27-24, 7 tackles7WKSUSeason high
Game 1: at Georgia Tech, win 14-13, 1 tackleWGT@Game 2: against Weber State, win 52-21, 0 tackles, FCS opponentWWEBFCSGame 3: at Northwestern, loss 7-41, no tackles in this gameLNU@Game 4: at Baylor, loss 13-23, 1 tackleLBAY@Game 5: against Texas Tech, loss 7-29, no tackles in this gameLTTUGame 6: against Utah, loss 24-27, no tackles in this gameLUTAHGame 7: at Oklahoma State, loss 24-57, 1 tackleLOKST@Game 8: against Kansas State, win 27-24, 7 tackles7WKSUSeason high

Kansas State · W 27-24

7 tackles

Open this game

Vickers has tackles in 5 of Colorado’s 8 games: none against Northwestern, Texas Tech and Utah.

This week

The story

Written , before the 2026 season

The story everyone in Boulder already knows is the one Vickers can't outrun, and wouldn't want to. He transferred from Oklahoma in December 2024 with two quiet seasons behind him, then posted in mid-March that he'd undergone heart surgery. He missed all of spring, came back for fall camp, and made his Colorado debut roughly six months post-op, logging a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry in a 31-7 win. Coach Prime framed it as a triumph, and it was.

Read the rest of the story

The 2026 chapter is colder math. Vickers is one of just three holdovers (with RJ Johnson and Kole Mathis) in a cornerback room Sanders gutted and restocked through the portal again. Notre Dame transfer Cree Thomas locked down the No. 1 spot in spring, with Prime flatly saying "Cree is that guy." The other outside corner is genuinely open, and the line for it is long: JMU's Justin Eaglin, Tennessee's Boo Carter, Lamar's Paul Omodia, App State's Emory Floyd, plus the returners. Vickers' case is the one nobody else has — a former four-star (No. 73 nationally) with real positional flex, used at corner, nickel, safety and dime in 2025, when he posted 8 solo tackles and 2 pass breakups in limited snaps.

That versatility is his floor and maybe his ceiling: it keeps him on the field even if he doesn't win a starting boundary job, but it can also typecast him as the Swiss-army defensive back who never quite owns one spot. The forward stake the boards are circling: in a room this deep, does the comeback story turn into a starting role, or does Vickers spend 2026 as the most valuable utility piece in Coach Prime's secondary?

Sources

Style of play

Style of play

Play style, written June 30, before the season

No play-by-play percentiles exist for Vickers' 2025 sample, so this is a scouting read. He's a long, 6-1, 191-pound former safety who plays like one — comfortable bailing to deep middle, sliding into the nickel, or matching tight ends in dime, which is exactly how Colorado deployed him on return. The four-star pedigree shows up as smooth hips and recovery speed rather than press-man bully traits; his 2025 line (8 solo tackles, 2 pass breakups, a quarterback hurry on a blitz) reads like a rangy chess piece feeling his way back, not a finished boundary lockdown corner. The projection is a versatile, ball-aware defender whose value is positional flexibility more than shutdown isolation reps.

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